Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 60

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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Contents of the Gita Summarized
Chapter 2: Verse-20

na jäyate mriyate vä kadäcin
näyam bhütvä bhavitä vä na bhüyah
ajo nityah sasvato ’yam purano
na hanyate hanyamäne sarire[1]

TRANSLATION

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.


PURPORT

Qualitatively, the small atomic fragmental part of the Supreme Spirit is one with the Supreme. He undergoes no changes like the body. Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or küöa-stha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth from the womb of the mother’s body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal, ever-existing, and primeval—that is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time become old, as the body does. The so-called old man, therefore, feels himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are also different individual souls; and, owing to the body, they appear as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the soul’s presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body.



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References

  1. na=never; jäyate=takes birth; mriyate=dies; vä=either; kadäcit=at any
    time (past, present or future); na=never; ayam=this; bhütvä=having come into being; bhavitä=will come to be; vä=or; na=not; bhüyah=or is again coming to be; ajah=unborn; nityah=eternal; säsvatah=permanent; ayam=this; puräëah=the oldest; na=never; hanyate=is killed; hanyamäne=being killed; sarire=he body.

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